Monday 13th – Friday 17th November 2023
and
Tuesday 23rd – Wednesday 24th January 2024

Although the name Drugajanje is based on a linguistic reference to The Second Gymnasium Maribor, where the festival began 21 years ago in collaboration with the Bunker Institute (Slov. druga_i = “second”, “other”), today, as the festival expands to other cities, the name opens up new semantic references – for example, the notion of the Other, which constitutively shapes the Self by holding up a mirror to it. Since contemporary productions often elude classical formats and genre norms, it is often theatre, or rather the performing arts, that find themselves in this position of mirroring the society of the Selves. This is why the Drugajanje festival, aiming to bring contemporary performing arts closer to young people, also features diverse and atypical performance formats. For example, the theatrical essay, as we could describe Gregor Moder’s Antigone and Neja Tomšič’s The Circle, Lea Kukovičič’s artist talk, Ant Hampton and Tim Etchells’ audio performance, and devised and documentary theatre by Filip Mramor, Silke Huysmans and Hannes Dereere.
This year’s Drugajanje festival, which will be organised in two parts (November 2023 and January 2024) and in five cities (Celje, Ljutomer, Nova Gorica, Ptuj and Maribor), remains faithful to the close cooperation with secondary schools and local organisations in the cities. In addition, this year’s festival places a strong emphasis on workshops, where students will learn about theatre theory and practice, criticism, stage design, directing, contemporary dance, storytelling, and film and visual arts. And although the festival is primarily aimed at secondary school students, performances are also open to outside audiences – so welcome all!